Marshall McLuhan: “The Medium is the Message”

Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase, “The medi­um is the message.”

But what does it mean?
Who was Marshall McLuhan?

And how does it relate to PR?

Here we go: 

Marshall McLuhan: “The Medium is the Message”

“The medi­um is the mes­sage” is a phrase coined by the Canadian philo­soph­er Marshall McLuhan in the first chapter of his not­able book “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.” ¹Understanding Media. (2023, September 18). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​U​n​d​e​r​s​t​a​n​d​i​n​g​_​M​e​dia

Despite being one of the most influ­en­tial thinkers in media the­ory, McLuhan’s ideas are often widely mis­un­der­stood. “The medi­um is the mes­sage” is no exception.

“The medi­um is the mes­sage” does­n’t imply that con­tent or sub­stance lacks import­ance; it only implies that the medi­um in which mes­sages are sent will sig­ni­fic­antly impact humanity.

McLuhan viewed human tech­no­lo­gies as exten­sions of our human physiology. Our abil­ity to build houses extends our human skin, as it pro­tects against the ele­ments. This added lay­er of pro­tec­tion and phys­ic­al safety frees up men­tal band­width for human interaction.

In McLuhan’s inter­pret­a­tion, a house is a medi­um. All human tech­no­lo­gies, down to the camp­fire, are con­sidered mediums.

“McLuhan’s insight was that a medi­um affects the soci­ety in which it plays a role not by the con­tent delivered over the medi­um, but by the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the medi­um itself. […] McLuhan poin­ted to the light bulb as a clear demon­stra­tion of this concept. A light bulb does not have con­tent in the way that a news­pa­per has art­icles or a tele­vi­sion has pro­grams, yet it is a medi­um that has a social effect; that is, a light bulb enables people to cre­ate spaces dur­ing night­time that would oth­er­wise be envel­oped by dark­ness.”
Source: Wikipedia ²Marshall McLuhan. (2023, May 15). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​M​a​r​s​h​a​l​l​_​M​c​L​u​han

McLuhan argued that our abil­ity to cre­ate tech­no­lo­gic­al exten­sions of our human abil­it­ies fun­da­ment­ally impacts our soci­ety — far more than any single mes­sage con­veyed via the new technology.

For example:

And so on.

Why is McLuhan’s ana­lys­is necessary? 

“The medi­um is the mes­sage” is a stark remind­er that a medi­um’s format (and lim­it­a­tions) will massively impact human soci­ety — and the mes­sages them­selves, too.

We often default to seek­ing mean­ing in mes­sages but for­get to con­sider the medi­um’s inher­ent media logic.

Learn more: Media Logic is Dead, Long Live Media Logic

Enter: The Electronic Age

Human cul­ture is often described based on our access to pro­duc­tion tech­no­lo­gies (e.g., the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age).

According to Marshall McLuhan and the Toronto School of Communication Theory, a bet­ter ana­lys­is would be to view soci­et­al devel­op­ment based on the prom­in­ence of emer­ging com­mu­nic­a­tions technologies.

McLuhan’s Four Epochs

McLuhan sug­gests divid­ing human civil­isa­tion into four epochs:

“The Gutenberg Galaxy is a land­mark book that intro­duced the concept of the glob­al vil­lage and estab­lished Marshall McLuhan as the ori­gin­al ‘media guru’, with more than 200,000 cop­ies in print.”
Source: Modern Language Review ³McLuhan, M. (1963). The Gutenberg galaxy: the mak­ing of typo­graph­ic man. Modern Language Review, 58, 542. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​2​3​0​7​/​3​7​1​9​923

As a PR pro­fes­sion­al and lin­guist, I sub­scribe to the concept of the Electronic Age. I firmly believe soci­ety is unlikely to revert to the Gutenberg Galaxy.

Read also: The Electronic Age and the End of the Gutenberg Galaxy

Background: Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan, a pion­eer­ing fig­ure in media the­ory, is known for his pro­found impact on under­stand­ing medi­a’s role in soci­ety. ⁴Marshall McLuhan. (2023, November 17). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​M​a​r​s​h​a​l​l​_​M​c​L​u​han

McLuhan was born on July 21, 1911, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. McLuhan was the son of a real estate and insur­ance sales­man and an act­ress, which might have influ­enced his interest in media and com­mu­nic­a­tion. His moth­er, Elsie Naomi McLuhan, was an act­ress and eloc­u­tion­ist, influ­en­cing his interest in speech and com­mu­nic­a­tion. He suffered a stroke at the age of four, which affected his abil­ity to read and write for sev­er­al years.

McLuhan’s time at Cambridge University, where he stud­ied under influ­en­tial lit­er­ary crit­ics like F.R. Leavis and I.A. Richards, deeply shaped his intel­lec­tu­al devel­op­ment. His PhD dis­ser­ta­tion at Cambridge focused on the Elizabethan play­wright Thomas Nashe and the verbal arts. It explored the clas­sic­al trivi­um of gram­mar, dia­lectic, and rhet­or­ic, reflect­ing his lifelong interest in lan­guage and communication.

McLuhan taught at sev­er­al uni­ver­sit­ies, includ­ing the University of Toronto, where he spent much of his career.

Before his fame in media the­ory, McLuhan pub­lished art­icles on advert­ising and busi­ness man­age­ment. His first major book, “The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man” (1951), examined pop­u­lar cul­ture and advert­ising. ⁵The Mechanical Bride. (2023, November 12). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​T​h​e​_​M​e​c​h​a​n​i​c​a​l​_​B​r​ide

McLuhan was also a poet, with his work exhib­it­ing a com­plex, sym­bol­ist style. He appeared in Woody Allen’s film “Annie Hall” (1977), play­ing him­self in a fam­ous scene. McLuhan col­lab­or­ated with avant-garde artists, includ­ing Harley Parker and John Cage, reflect­ing his inter­dis­cip­lin­ary approach.

McLuhan suffered a stroke in 1979 that affected his abil­ity to speak. He died in 1980.

Although McLuhan’s work was con­tro­ver­sial dur­ing his life­time, his insights have gained increas­ing recog­ni­tion and rel­ev­ance in the digit­al age with the rise of the inter­net and social media.

McLuhan’s work laid the found­a­tions for the field of media eco­logy, which stud­ies media envir­on­ments and their effects on human exper­i­ence and understanding.

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